Primary productivity of grass ecosystems of the tropics and sub-tropics /

A description of research conducted under the UN Environment Program (UNEP), this collection of papers examines primary productivity in five very different tropical grassland ecosystems: a savanna in Kenya, a saline grassland in Mexico, a monsoon grassland in Thailand, a floodplain grassland in Brazil, and a bamboo forest in China. The editors, who are also the coordinators of the project, have made a good effort to standardize methods so that the measurements will be comparable, and a large part of the book deals with these standardized methods and how they contrast with those used during the earlier International Biological Program (IBP). The writing style is clear and direct throughout, and each chapter has a substantial list of references to the original literature. These papers will interest mainly graduate students and specialists in grassland ecosystems, although parts will also interest students of primary productivity and its measurement in any ecosystem. W. E. Williams; St. Mary's College of Maryland